New York Comptroller DiNapoli says he wants to work with local leaders on budget woes

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli stops to talk to Bob Becker at the Marine Corps League booth at the New York State Fair. Marine Veteran Becker is the National Legislature Chair of the Marine Corp League.
Ellen M. Blalock / The Post-Standard

Geddes – New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Monday any state action to help localities with looming budget crises should have input from local leaders.

“We are clearly in a situation where more and more cities are facing difficult financial stress,” DiNapoli said at the New York State Fair.

One option, he said, is for the state to create a way to deal with more than one troubled city or town at once. But that idea – which some have called a super control board – is a broad concept that needs defining and collaboration among local leaders.

“The notion of a control board is a very broad term,” DiNapoli, a Democrat, said at his booth in the Center of Progress Building. “People are reacting to something that is not even a defined proposal.”

Upstate mayors, including Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, pushed back against the idea of a one-size-fits-all solution when it first arose earlier this month. Miner, a Democrat who co-chairs the state’s party committee, has warned the city could run out of money within three years because of shrinking tax revenues and rising healthcare and pension costs.

DiNapoli said he hasn’t spoken at length to Miner about any budgetary solutions. He said he expects his office to produce a summary of municipal budget problems soon.